Q&A with André Anderson

The Freedom and Balance curriculum founder is making creativity readily accessible for his peers and telling his community's story on his terms

Curiosity, play and exploration aren’t always considered a priority in our day to day lives, but why not? André Anderson, Headmaster of Freedom and Balance believes that there is an artist in everyone. From setting up discussions and open sessions for the community to publishing a book highlighting stories from his local estate, Andre is pushing the narrative of storytelling through art and multimedia. We linked up with Andre to talk through his journey, lessons learnt along the way and the power of play and conversation.

What was the catalyst behind creating Freedom & Balance?

If you’re not from St Raphael's Estate, there is automatically a dark association with the young people who live there. Growing up, people would have ‘ghost stories’ that were connected to you or someone you knew. I realised there was power in us telling our own stories, and that's how Authors from the Estate came about. Five of us from the estate, all with something to say, shared and transcribed our stories over a period of time. With funding, we were able to print and distribute them to 1,000 homes in the estate in 2015. It was a transformational moment in my life because now it was something that my estate could be known for—the words ‘author’ and ‘St Raphael's Estate’ wouldn’t have been associated before, and now we had physical proof of what could be achieved, sparking a perspective change. From there, I couldn’t go back and began to think about if and how I could create a system and community that would allow this change to develop and grow.

“The reason was not to prove the world wrong, it was to prove ourselves right - it was an affirmation of what we knew about ourselves and not letting the external stories paint the complete picture of who we were”.

Let's talk more about ‘Authors of the Estate’, a curriculum used on London estates to empower the narrative of those within to share their stories. How did that project come about and why do you believe the amplification of said voices is so important?

Before Authors from the Estate, if you typed our estate into Google, the first searches would be about a stabbing or a robbery with no context around people's stories. My goal was not to tell the world that we’re different but to tell ourselves that we’re different, as it can be so easy to believe the stories that are told to you. This was shown in how we distributed the book, our goal was to ensure it went to all 1,000 households in the estate and not 1,000 households outside the estate, they were our primary focus. The reason was not to prove the world wrong but to prove ourselves right - it was an affirmation of what we knew about ourselves and not letting external stories paint the complete picture of who we were.

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In one of your blog posts, you said that “sometimes you need to build your own lesson plan, and take every win and loss as learning” - how would you describe your educational journey and were any moments that you reflect back on that impact the work you do now?

At college, I felt that the educational system didn’t require me to be a three-dimensional active creator; I was just required to meet a certain checkbox. This has influenced me in the way I have set up Freedom & Balance because I believe learning is important and lifelong. I wanted it to feel integrated with everyday life and that it is an open learning environment promoting experimentation and play. For me, I loved the art room, and I want people to feel open to making choices and know that learning and education come through these choices and not through learning a specific bit of information. I would rather lay out the instructions and then give people time to play while also allowing for collective conversation.

“As a creator, I am trying to make that transition from always wanting new things to me looking at things that already exist and thinking how deep can that go?”

With your Play Prompts, you encourage others to think, write, reflect on a certain topic - how do you go about creating the prompts and were you/have you been surprised by the reaction they have received online?

I wanted to find a way to translate the playful environment I set up offline and see how this worked in an online world, seeing my online profile/presence as an extension of the playground. This led to me posting briefs and prompts that have been designed specifically for people to easily engage. I wanted to remove the excuses of not having time or not being artistic (there is no mention of creativity and art, just play). It should fit within your day and just help you to think a little differently. There have been more introspective and “deeper” prompts, and while I didn’t know how people would respond, I have had people DM me to say, “Thanks, I really needed that.” Or it might be something to make conversations with friends more playful - people have actually sent screenshots of their group chats using the play-prompts and conversation and discussion points. People are using them to connect with others, which is incredible to see.

What questions do you believe need to be asked more?

I think one of the main questions is, “What are the possibilities with the materials we already have?” This could be materials, people, space, or time. What is to stop us from stretching the possibilities of what we can do with something or how we use it? The answer isn’t always about the creation of new things but looking at new possibilities of what we have around us. As a creator, I am trying to make that transition from always wanting new things to me looking at things that already exist and thinking how deep that can go. If we apply that thinking to education, politics, activism, and family life, I think we will find some very interesting discoveries.

With a change in national government, what/what more would you like to see done to support young creatives and young people in general?

At the most basic level, more tools and more spaces. It’s sad that I can speak to young people today about youth clubs, and they have no idea what I am talking about. There needs to be more spaces that aren’t home, aren’t educational and employment-focused, and just allow young people to be themselves. Young people have no loading time; they are either a child or need to be an adult. They need a space to be boring, a space free of pressure, and a space to be creative. Investing in the future means investing in play - giving young people memories to reflect back on as well as providing sustainable agility that they can take into further life. When I talk about play, it's not just about giving them a good time but about survival and developing the next generation of leaders and thinkers. Also, free bikes! When you hear the sound of a stolen Lime bike, that is literally a call to say they want to ride a bike but can’t afford to.

Article by Nathan Tuft

Follow André’s journey here and grab his new ‘Love Letters for my Peoples’ journal